James Wilson was hanged and beheaded on Glasgow Green on 30 August 1820 for his part in the Scottish Radical Rising earlier that year. An estimated 20,000 people gathered to watch.

Wilson was a weaver from Strathaven in Lanarkshire and had been involved in demands for political reform for many years. By 1820, economic hardship and restricted political representation had contributed to unrest among working people in central Scotland.

At the beginning of April, a proclamation appeared in Glasgow and surrounding districts calling for a general strike and demanding political change. Small groups of radicals also prepared for armed action.

Wilson was initially cautious about reports that a wider insurrection was under way. He nevertheless joined a group that left Strathaven expecting to meet other radicals. They carried a banner bearing the words ‘Scotland Free or a Desart’. The expected larger force did not appear, and the attempt quickly collapsed.

Wilson was arrested and tried in Glasgow in July. He faced four counts of high treason. The jury acquitted him on three counts but found him guilty of compassing to levy war against the King to compel him to change his measures. The jurors recommended mercy.

It made no difference to the sentence. Wilson was condemned to the punishment then prescribed for high treason.

On 30 August he was taken to Glasgow Green. Contemporary reports described a crowd of around 20,000, with troops deployed around the execution ground. Wilson was hanged and, after his body was taken down, beheaded.

Two other radicals, Andrew Hardie and John Baird, were executed at Stirling the following month.

The events of 1820 remain complicated by government spies and informers. Later evidence strengthened claims that agents had encouraged radical activity. However, historians have continued to debate how far the government provoked the rising rather than infiltrated an existing movement. Wilson’s conviction itself was narrower. Of the four treason charges put before his jury, only one produced a guilty verdict.